Palau well-situated to accept Chinese Muslims from Guantanamo

The remote Pacific island nation of Palau at first glance may seem an unlikely destination for the 17 Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002.

But the answer to why Obama administration officials chose Palau for their resettlement came down to two main factors: its close relationship with the United States and its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan but not China.

Palau’s tentative agreement Wednesday to temporarily accept the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, culminates a process begun under the George W. Bush administration. But it may not settle the future of the detainees.

The Uighurs were captured and sent to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo after traveling to Afghanistan for firearms training. Some Uighurs advocate independence for their region from China, so Beijing considers them armed separatists, and it has asked that the detainees be returned for trial.

China also has pressured other countries not to take the Uighurs. But the absence of diplomatic relations with China makes Palau less vulnerable to pressure from Beijing.

Most developed countries long ago switched their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, but Taipei has hunted for allies among small developing countries, including several in the Pacific.

That diplomatic alignment led the Bush administration to look around the Pacific for a new home for the Uighurs, according to a U.S. official who spoke of negotiations on condition of anonymity.

“We’ve been talking with tiny Pacific island nations for years,” the official said.

Similar negotiations with other nations have broken down over how much it would cost to resettle the Uighurs, the official said.

U.S. and Palau officials said Wednesday that the island nation was not taking the Uighurs in return for additional U.S. aid.

But Palau already was set to receive a big boost in aid from Washington. The government of Palau is renegotiating a compact with the United States, first signed in 1994, that could add as much as $200 million in coming years, U.S. officials have said.

“This long-standing agreement . . . is not linked to any other discussions we may be having with the government of Palau,” said Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman.

In an interview with the BBC, Palauan President Johnson Toribiong said his country would take the Uighurs because of his country’s special relationship with the United States.

“It is an act of support for the United States in its quest to release these people,” Toribiong said.

He told the BBC he had not discussed money, except for a small support fund to pay for the Uighurs’ transition to Palau. He added that if the U.S. was willing to increase its aid, “we would gladly accept it.”

Palau was controlled by Japan until 1947, when the United States took over administration of the islands. Palau gained its independence in 1994, but it remains heavily dependent on the aid Washington provides under the compact. U.S. and Palauan officials began renegotiating the agreement this year.

Palau may not be the final home for all of the Guantanamo Uighurs. Toribiong emphasized the Uighurs’ stay there may be temporary, though he said they would be moved only with the blessing of the United States.

“These detainees no longer have any passports from their home country,” he said. “The only way they can move is for the United States to assist them in moving them from place to place.”

The Obama administration is still in talks “with a number of countries” about taking the Uighurs, said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. Germany and Australia, for example, have Uighur communities, and U.S. diplomats are pressing both nations to accept some of the detainees.

Some of the Chinese Muslims eventually could come to the United States as well, another U.S. official said. Originally, the Obama administration, as it plans for the closing of the Guantanamo prison, had hoped to move some Uighurs to the U.S., in part to encourage European countries to agree to help resettle some detainees. But congressional opposition delayed those plans.

U.S. officials emphasized that negotiations with Palau were not complete. White House officials used the word “offer” to refer to the Palauan proposal, and there was no official agreement with Palau.

A lawyer for some of the Uighurs, Sabin Willett, said he was still trying to learn details about the apparent agreement.

A former Bush administration official, who also spoke of the resettlement process on condition of anonymity, said the Uighurs’ advisors could try to stop the transfer to Palau.

“Their counsel may prefer to try to gamble that they can have them resettled in the U.S. or Europe,” the former official said.

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julian.barnes@latimes.com

Christi Parsons in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.